512 CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 



restored his sight. The site of this chieftain's residence is pointed 

 out as the Pre Aubert. Over her body, he took care to erect a 

 church. 



The anachronism of making a Gothic-chief resident at Sens 

 is sufficiently gross, but it is possible enough that an Autbert at 

 a much later period did erect a shrine on the site traditionally 

 pointed out as the scene of the martyrdom. The fountain, 

 elicited by her blood, is called la Fontaine d'Azon, and is 

 between the villages of 8. Clement and S. Denys near where 

 the old Eoman road runs from Meaux to Sens. Every year, on 

 the Tuesday before Easter, i.e. Tuesday in Holy Week, this Holy 

 Well was a great object of resort, but the chapel over it was 

 destroyed in 1793, and no traces of it now remain. It had been 

 rebuilt in 1553. 



In Sens itself was a cellar which was supposed to have been 

 the prison of the saint, and over it was a chapel or martyrium, 

 called Sainte Colombe-la-Petite. From the chapel, by a stair of 

 nineteen steps, the reputed prison was reached, and here also 

 was a holy well.* 



In Finistere S. Columba receives veneration at Plougoulm, 

 but great uncertainty exists there whether she be the patroness, 

 or a Colman who founded the Plou. The feast there is on 

 September 26th. 



At Sens her feast is December 31st. 



At S. Columb, in Cornwall, November 13th. 



There is a difficulty in understanding how a virgin martyr 

 of Sens could have become patroness of two parishes in North 

 Cornwall ; and I venture to offer a suggestion that the true 

 patron is S. Columba (a male) of Tir-da-glas. 



This saint was a native of Leinster ; his father was king 

 Ninnidh, of the race of Crimthan. He was educated by S. 

 Colman at Clonkeen in Louth, in his earliest youth, and then 

 passed through the hands of S. Finian of Clonard, where he was 

 a companion of S. Columba of lona. Thence he started for 

 Rome and Tours, to visit the tombs of the Apostles and of S. 

 Martin. On his way home, he tarried some time in Britain, 

 where he converted a king and all his house. The writer of his 



*Brulee, Hist, de I'abbaye de Ste Colombe-les-Sens, Sens, 1852. 



